Airport.

[Ringy Rose]

21 hours ago, doc.fixit said:

The app is a total rip off and difficult to use for us folk who don't regularly use either the airport or internet services.

You can post on here but you can’t put your car reg into an app? Aye, right.

How do people who “can’t use the internet” buy their plane tickets? By carrier pigeon?

As for the “revised plan”, what a pile of steaming shite that is. And still a price rise in the double-digit percentage for those who previously used the long-stay car park.

Yes, I know most of the pressure is coming from Treasury after that Poundland Tory Cannan spunked hundreds of millions away in the last administration. But still. 

£40 for a week becomes £60 for a week, an inflation-tastic 50% price rise. So much for helping with the cost of living crisis. Thanks Alfie C, you bellend.

 

[Roger Mexico]

53 minutes ago, Ringy Rose said:

22 hours ago, doc.fixit said:

The app is a total rip off and difficult to use for us folk who don't regularly use either the airport or internet services.

You can post on here but you can’t put your car reg into an app? Aye, right.

How do people who “can’t use the internet” buy their plane tickets? By carrier pigeon?

You're missing doc.fixit's point.  The key word here is "regularly".  If you're not a regular user negotiating a technology that you don't use often is a bit of a barrier.  Someone might get help to buy plane tickets or be able to do so with care slowly, but an involved procedure for doing something trivial is likely to put them off using that and seeking alternatives.

A lot of the problem here is that there is an underlying feeling in government on the Island (and indeed in too many businesses) that there is no alternative to the service they provide and therefore they don't have to bother to make it attractive to use.  It's the job of the public to fit around what is convenient for the organisation.  But that isn't the case with airport parking - people can get friends/relatives to drop them off; use buses; use valet parking; book taxies etc.  So if using the car parks becomes difficult, business will be lost.

[doc.fixit]

3 hours ago, Ringy Rose said:

You can post on here but you can’t put your car reg into an app? Aye, right.

How do people who “can’t use the internet” buy their plane tickets? By carrier pigeon?

As for the “revised plan”, what a pile of steaming shite that is. And still a price rise in the double-digit percentage for those who previously used the long-stay car park.

Yes, I know most of the pressure is coming from Treasury after that Poundland Tory Cannan spunked hundreds of millions away in the last administration. But still. 

£40 for a week becomes £60 for a week, an inflation-tastic 50% price rise. So much for helping with the cost of living crisis. Thanks Alfie C, you bellend.

 

Of course I can use an app! I have at least 50 on my phone and laptop. You seem to be missing the point that the parking app is an unnecessary complication to what could be a simple, working operation. I would also hope that you never have a dispute with the parking app people. Maybe read up about the various disputes that have been reported around the parking app.

Finally, be nice. Have a good day.

[doc.fixit]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

You're missing doc.fixit's point.  The key word here is "regularly".  If you're not a regular user negotiating a technology that you don't use often is a bit of a barrier.  Someone might get help to buy plane tickets or be able to do so with care slowly, but an involved procedure for doing something trivial is likely to put them off using that and seeking alternatives.

A lot of the problem here is that there is an underlying feeling in government on the Island (and indeed in too many businesses) that there is no alternative to the service they provide and therefore they don't have to bother to make it attractive to use.  It's the job of the public to fit around what is convenient for the organisation.  But that isn't the case with airport parking - people can get friends/relatives to drop them off; use buses; use valet parking; book taxies etc.  So if using the car parks becomes difficult, business will be lost.

Thank you.

[Two-lane]

I am really pissed off with the pay-in-advance aspect of this system, combined with the smartphone app. It is not appropriate for an airport car park. I do not want to predict when I will be back. I do not want to have to use some system to get a few more hours of parking, just because I decide to stay an extra day or so somewhere else. And then maybe do the same again the next day.

If Chris Thomas is reading - this system is just so much useless crap.

And who the hell is going to pay for 4 hours of parking at Ronaldsway? How many people get on the plane to Liverpool, and then get the next flight back?

[ I did pay the £60 for a max. period ticket a while ago, because I intended to be away for quite a while. I was a few days over the time limit when I got back. It was late in a winter's evening, I was not in a good mood, and I had little or no intention of going to the info. desk to pay the extra. It made no difference anyway because I had already been given two parking tickets - although the glue they use isn't too good, because there was nothing on the windscreen. The geniuses at the DoI probably are semi-orgasmic at the use of a pay-in-advance scheme, as they think that forcing people to overpay (which is the reason for this type of scheme) makes them world-class business persons. ]

Rant over - until later.

[Nellie]

Tonight's Gatwick already showing a two hour delay which means it'll probably be cancelled for the second evening in a row. Dozens of people, some of whom may have travelled thousands of miles and booked months ago, are going to see their TT trip screwed up. 

@Chris Thomas  when are we going to see/hear some proper reaction from the Airport management, or political representatives, to at least say, unequivocally, that this level of service is unacceptable.

We all know that you're all scared of upsetting easyJet, but there comes a point where you need to let to the public see that you finally trying to do something to sort this consistently unreliable service out. 

I know that, on the radio the other day, Cobb said he hoped the flight would eventually night-stop here but that's 18 months away. We need to see/hear some real action NOW! 

[IOM]

3 minutes ago, Nellie said:

Tonight's Gatwick already showing a two hour delay which means it'll probably be cancelled for the second evening in a row. Dozens of people, some of whom may have travelled thousands of miles and booked months ago, are going to see their TT trip screwed up. 

@Chris Thomas  when are we going to see/hear some proper reaction from the Airport management, or political representatives, to at least say, unequivocally, that this level of service is unacceptable.

We all know that you're all scared of upsetting easyJet, but there comes a point where you need to let to the public see that you finally trying to do something to sort this consistently unreliable service out. 

I know that, on the radio the other day, Cobb said he hoped the flight would eventually night-stop here but that's 18 months away. We need to see/hear some real action NOW! 

I agree it’s poor and if delayed overnight it’s dreadful for those involved. But let’s be honest there is absolutely nothing new here if you rewound back the same thing was happening. Seems to me nobody really cares it until it affects them most people just want to travel for ridiculously low and unsustainable fares . The net result is the service suffers and that’s the issue . 

[forestboy]

4 minutes ago, IOM said:

I agree it’s poor and if delayed overnight it’s dreadful for those involved. But let’s be honest there is absolutely nothing new here if you rewound back the same thing was happening. Seems to me nobody really cares it until it affects them most people just want to travel for ridiculously low and unsustainable fares . The net result is the service suffers and that’s the issue . 

And there is no fog or reduced visibility to blame. 

[Ringy Rose]

2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

You're missing doc.fixit's point.  The key word here is "regularly".  If you're not a regular user negotiating a technology that you don't use often is a bit of a barrier.

No, I’m not missing their point, I’m disagreeing with it. The RingGo app is a damn sight easier to use than, say, the parking machines in Shaw’s Brow, as once you’ve set it up it’s a click of a button each time.

People who say they “can’t” use the app do somehow still manage to use an app to book and check in for their flight.

We had the same whining with the Covid border passes the other year, people who’d managed to book EasyJet and hotels on the internet “couldn’t” fill a form out online. 

42 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

I am really pissed off with the pay-in-advance aspect of this system, combined with the smartphone app. It is not appropriate for an airport car park

Yet pretty much every single airport in the rest of the world has a pre-booking system which everyone somehow manages to deal with. Of course they offer a PAYG offer too. Example when I flew from Leeds last year for a week: pre-book £50, PAYG £250.

The proposed charges are insane, but I truly don’t get why people hate RingGo. Buying an off-the-shelf system rather than a Manx solution and everyone still whines.

[swoopy2110]

There was talk by Cobb the other day that the airport hours need to be reviewed at part of the grand plan.

Easyjet aren't going to suit their schedule around the needs of the Isle of Man. So maybe the Isle of Man need to review what they can do to suit the airlines, and staff things accordingly. The overnight delays could be avoided if we could open later. Delays are going to happen, their planes are going to get delayed in Europe during the day. If we could open later (without talking silly times!) Then they'd get the plane here and out again.

[Ringy Rose]

20 minutes ago, Nellie said:

@Chris Thomas  when are we going to see/hear some proper reaction from the Airport management, or political representatives, to at least say, unequivocally, that this level of service is unacceptable.

Open skies means no control. What are they going to say? And why would Johan Lundgren give a toss?

[John Wright]

The real problem isn’t EZY. They’re as frustrated as their customers. And hugely out of pocket.*

The real problem is ATC and that we have so few ATCO that there is no resilience, no real opportunity to stay open.

whatever the number active at present, or how many are off, we are way down on establishment. There’s been no succession planning. Thomas and Cobb are on record as not expecting to get up to establishment for the next 3 years, and that’s with fingers crossed that no one else retires, leaves, goes off with stress.

It’s wing & a prayer stuff.

* I was on a cancelled flight from Gatwick 2 weeks ago. Sunday night. Didn’t get home until Tuesday. Two nights in 3* hotel ( one in central London, one at Gatwick plus return rail fare - had to go back into London as the first night there were no accessible rooms within 20 miles of Gatwick ). EZY reimbursed just under £300 on a £75 ticket.

Multiply that by 180 passengers.

[Whiskey]

Is it just ATC or is it crew hours too? 

[John Wright]

13 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Is it just ATC or is it crew hours too? 

EZY have on call crews they can bring in as schedules slip. There may be one or two cases of crew hours, but mainly it’s ATC and IoM Airport curfew.

( of course EZY blame IoM airport, and vice versa )

[Ringy Rose]

54 minutes ago, John Wright said:

The real problem isn’t EZY. They’re as frustrated as their customers. And hugely out of pocket.

No, the real problem *is* EasyJet and their failure to fly planes to schedule. The airport has a soft curfew of 9.30pm and a hard curfew of 11pm. 11pm curfews are not uncommon- Berlin Brandenberg is the same. 

It’s a recurring issue with that late Gatwick rotation, it’s not an unexpected one-off, it happens all the time.